Somalia: “Camps filled with Internally Displaced Persons – people forced to flee the violence and insecurity of their home regions – are still a common sight. But for the women who live in them, violence and insecurity are still pertinent issues.” Rape flourishes in Mogadishu’s IDP camps – RBC Radio

Thought-provoking

“And let’s unpack the statement “But we’re a faaaaaaaamily” when it’s used to manipulate you into something you don’t want to do. Your sister is family, and if she needs you, maybe she needs you. But you also need something from her, and from your mom: You need respect for your boundaries and some time and space to get your head together. Why are other people’s needs automatically covered by “faaaaaaamily” but yours are not? An interesting question, no?” #418: My mom wants me to prioritize caring for my sister over caring for myself. What do I do? – Captain Awkward

“Republicans started it when, as early as the environmentalist movements of the ’70s, they began to morph into the party that defended corporate profits over public health and environmental good. Why would scientists support a party that ignores and refuses to fund important scientific initiatives like efforts to fight climate change, stem cell research, and advances in improving sexual health, like development of the cervical cancer vaccine? Sarewitz blames scientists for the politicization of science, when any fool can see that Republicans attacked first and scientists are just defending themselves.” Scientists hate GOP for a reason – Salon

Religion

“What Debi is doing here is so toxic I’m having trouble finding words to make sense of it. Debi is literally telling women that, so long as they keep obeying their husbands, they can’t be victims. I’ve never been an abused woman, but I can try to imagine what that would do to my psyche if I were, and it ain’t pretty. She is telling victimized women that no matter how much they are abused, rather than seeking help they need to just keep on obeying, honoring, and reverencing their husbands. No matter what.” CTBHHM: How to Be an Abused Woman – Love, Joy, Feminism

“And as much as we disagree with and vociferously challenge people’s wrong and/or pernicious ideas, we should be able to bracket (or at least contextualize) these qualms as much as possible when considering people as whole people. For example, we should not let a philosophical disagreement, even a serious one, completely cloud our ability to appreciate someone’s overall excellent character where it exists. We should keep conflicts of the mind from precluding friendships of the heart. And a friendship of the mind where the minds disagree is in most cases something to cherish since it provides the benefits both of productive enmity and of harmonious concord.” Can You Really Love Religious People If You Hate Their Religion – Camels With Hammers

Equality

“But you know what? I think having discussions about why the vast, vast, vast majority of mass shooters are male is actually the pro-man route while ignoring those discussions is the anti-man route. Why? Because not trying to figure out why gun violence is overwhelmingly male means buying into an assumption that men are somehow just naturally more violent than women, and that assumption leads to some less than positive ideas about men. If instead we ask why men commit more gun violence than women, we can look for the various social factors that result in men committing more gun violence than women and then work to bring about change rather than simply assuming that men are naturally more violent than women.” The Intersection of Guns, Gender and Violence – Love, Joy, Feminism

“Obviously, I’m not a victim here (“No one suffers more than freelance writer Dan Solomon!”), but this whole experience was eye opening for me. CultureMap is a not-insignificant player in Texas media, and the idea that a company would let go of someone they’ve worked with for a long time for saying, “Speculating about whether a girl who files rape charges is a liar without reporting any information that leads to that conclusion is irresponsible!” while so steadfastly defending the article that does the speculating was a surprise.” I Lost a Job for Calling Out the Company’s Rape Apology – Everyday Feminism

“This is exactly what Burchill is doing. Sexism and classism, to Burchill, are Real Issues that we need to focus on. It doesn’t occur to her that poor people and women can be trans as well as cis. It doesn’t occur to her that the problem is not that trans activists are offended, but that they were used in the first place in a stereotyped, marginalising way to make someone else’s argument. You don’t fight racism or classism or ableism with misogyny, and if you do then you’d better expect some pissed off women. Similarly, you don’t fight classism or misogyny with racist transphobia, and if you do? You’re going to expect some pissed off trans people and POC.” Julie Burchill and trans women – Consider the Tea Cosy

“Yet, we look elsewhere. We look for excuses and make moves to reposition whiteness as victim needing protection. We use moments of tragedy to reassert the value in whiteness and the importance in protecting white bodies. We work to ‘blame’ something or someone other than Mr. Holmes, Mr. Lanza, Mr. Klebold, and countless others? With a narrative about” good kids” in hand and an insatiable need to ask, “Why?” and “How could he have done such a thing?” we continually imagine violence, barbarism, and terror elsewhere. White Americans like to think of this kind of violence as an anathema to who we are as a country and as a culture and are reluctant to think that someone like those all American kids, like our kids, like us, could be mass murdering monsters living in our midst. In reality, this kind of violence is in many ways a part of our violent history and culture. We have to accept that there is a “typical” face of mass murder in the United States – it is not the black kid killing people in gang shootings, the Mexican cartel member, or the “Muslim terrorist.” It can be, often is, will probably remain the innocent, white, suburban boy next door.” The Unbearable Invisibility of White Masculinity: Innocence in the Age of White Male Mass Shootings – Gawker

Health

“The other day I posted about a study that linked mortality to how capable an individual was of sitting down and standing up. A commenter there pointed me to Phillip Beach’s Muscles and Meridians, in which he discusses several floor- or ground-based “archetypal postures,” and recommends “erectorcises” to practice getting up from them.” Floor Living – Conditioning Research

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1 Comment

LK

January 23, 2013 – 1:49 pm

Loving the Captain Awkward blog. But all I can think while reading this current one is that this sister needs to stop having kids if she can’t handle it. She has a husband and she still needs her sister to come take care of her? Its not fair to just assume that every time you pop out a baby your sister will come to your house for 8 weeks to assist you. Not cool.